I was in Liverpool city centre this afternoon and observed the loadings of the 917 for Anfield about 90 minutes before the scheduled kick-off. There was a total of five deckers (mainly MMC's) in St John's Lane causing gridlock with another two waiting in Whitechapel. There was a very long line of fans queuing to board these buses but for some reason they were loading one bus at a time when clearly loading two or even three of them simultaneously would have been much more efficient and eased traffic congestion and no doubt the frustration of the fans. At least it was warm and sunny.
Maybe they dont see a need for the bus services? Having worked in a Liverpool City Centre hotel, I used to advise guests of all the services to Anfield/Goodison, and every guest always said they didnt have any problems. 17 & 19 run from Queens Sq, 26 & 27 from L1 and as previously mentioned, the 917 on matchdays too, as well as the soccerbus from sandhills. If they were to reintroduce soccer specials, they'd only run from the city centre anyway, by which point, theres a Merseyrail station within 5/10 minutes walk from wherever you are, be it bus or train.
Liverpool doesnt need anymore specials. Manchester should and smaller places without a bus nearby (Chester). Most stadiums are well connected but I do think more should be done to reduce the amount of cars flooding the streets.
(10/09/2016 16:17)Barney Wrote: [ -> ]I was in Liverpool city centre this afternoon and observed the loadings of the 917 for Anfield about 90 minutes before the scheduled kick-off. There was a total of five deckers (mainly MMC's) in St John's Lane causing gridlock with another two waiting in Whitechapel. There was a very long line of fans queuing to board these buses but for some reason they were loading one bus at a time when clearly loading two or even three of them simultaneously would have been much more efficient and eased traffic congestion and no doubt the frustration of the fans. At least it was warm and sunny.
The reason for that is that they don't all leave at the same time and are infact timetabled depending on the match kick-off.
If you boarded all 5 buses at the same time, you'd have quite a few fans moaning that the buses infront of them left 40 minutes earlier!
How many vehicles are actually used on the 917 as the timetable does state that the service runs at frequent intervals from 3hrs before the match starts.
(11/09/2016 13:40)T42 PVM Wrote: [ -> ]Normally it's a PVR of 4
I saw seven deckers operating the 917 at the same time within the vicinity of St John's Lane on Saturday. These services leave when they are full and there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why they should load up separately as the next stop (Anfield) is the final destination. As I said, yesterday was warm and sunny. I wouldn't be happy if I was made to stand in the cold and pouring rain for twenty minutes because the service had a notional timetable. Once the bus is full, it's full.
Old Trafford is far superior to The Etihad for public transport 2 Metrolink lines, Dedicated services on the Northern Services, Extra 250/256's regular average service on the x50/50/250/255/256 and 263.
Biggest problem with Old Trafford is integrated tickets to the ground on the Train line.